Ngo Nguyen Thao Vy, LL.M

Lecturer, International Law Faculty, Ho Chi Minh City University of Law

Nguyen Quoc Hung, LL.M

Doctor, Hospital for Traumatology and Orthopaedics

Abstract:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the clash between the right to access to medicines as a fundamental human right and the economic interests of international trade become more pronounced. Developers are doing their best in the race to find vaccines for the epidemic, while the States are struggling to ensure stockpiles of pharmaceuticals for domestic needs by implementing restriction/ban on the export of pharmaceuticals considered essential to fight against COVID-19, as well as enacting regulations on compulsory licensing for pharmaceuticals. These measures are sensitive in terms of various aspects of international trade law such as trade in goods, intellectual property rights and international investment, especially when the new generation of free trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP), contain specific provisions that member countries should take into account. This article will analyze the right to access to medicines during the COVID-19 pandemic with specific references to the provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements and the CPTPP, with the aim of warning for future acts from Vietnam as a member of these free trade mechanisms.

Keywords: right to access to medicines, COVID-19, intellectual property, international trade, WTO, CPTPP.